Development in deep freeze, Chandni Chowk a tinderbox

SummaryThe once glorious old city of Chandni Chowk has been fighting a losing battle to survive in the face of unorganised development.

The once glorious old city of Chandni Chowk has been fighting a losing battle to survive in the face of unorganised development.

Several proposed plans to revive its original beauty and upgrade the infrastructure have failed to take off.

The much-touted Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Plan is yet to be implemented and Special Area Regulations, which were to be in place, are missing.

The Shahjahanabad Redevelopment plan, which aimed to give a new lease of life to the Walled City area, has been in the pipeline for over six years now.

While it was reportedly given clearance by the Delhi government in August, it is yet to take off. People here continue to live under dangling wires, crumbling buildings and choked, inaccessible bylanes.

“There should be an emergency disaster management plan for an area like Chandni Chowk. On a given day, there are traffic jams lasting an hour. Any incident like a fire is bound to become a major disaster here. Neither the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Plan nor the Special Area Regulations have been implemented. Wholesale traders were supposed to be shifted out to integrated freight complexes, but nothing has happened under the Master Plan provisions,’’ Sanjay Bharghav of Chandni Chowk Traders’ Association said.

The Shahjahanabad Redevelopment plan was inaugurated in 2011 by the then Union HRD Minister and local MP Kapil Sibal. But the project got stuck in procedural delays. This plan was supposed to be implemented by Municipal Corporation of Delhi. “The plan is being finalised,’’ an MCD official said.

Under the Master Plan, Chandni Chowk comes under ‘special area’. According to the Master Plan, the regulations for special area are different from other areas.

Taking note of the draft re-development plan/scheme for special area - as notified in MPD-2021, a meeting of the technical committee of the Master Plan review in October states: “The technical committee opined that the implementation of redevelopment scheme involves consideration of complex issues of the Walled City like fractured ownership, sub-divided plots, extensive commercialisation, congestion, deficient infrastructure (physical & social ), mixed use, ancient buildings of historic value, etc. Technical committee desired that North Delhi Municipal Corporation may first get the consultant report examined in detail in-house with inputs from key